Motor-vehicle.



F. E. LAKE.

MOTOR VEHICLE. APPLICATION rum) JULY 24,1907.

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APPLICATION FILED NIL'24:,190'1v Patented Apr. 18,1911.

UNITED STATES, PATENT OFFICE.

,FRANK E. LAKE, OF'GUADALAJARA, MEXICO.

MOTOR-VEHICLE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 18, 1911.

Application filed July 24, 1907. Serial No. 385,392.

' To all whom amy concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK E. Lane, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Guadalajara, in the State of Jalisco,

Mexico, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Motor-Vehicles, of which the following is a description.

\My invention relates to motor vehicles. One of the greatest objections to theordinary automobilejisthat the operation of themotors-isacbmpanied by a considerable amount of jarring and vibration.

One offthe objects of my invention is to provide a construction which will reduce such tjarring and vibration to a' minimum, andI accomplish this end by a. novel arrangement of the motors and of-the flyv wheel,

. with respect to themachine frame.

Among the other objects of my'invention are the provision of a novel. clutch; mechanism, and the provision of an improved inc-ans by which access may readily be had tothe crank cases of the motors.

In the drawings forming a part of this. specification and whereinthe same characters of reference are used to indicate the same parts throughout, Figu1'e 1 is a plan view'of an automobile chassis showing the relation of the various motive parts to the machine frame; Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional View showing the clutches by which the motors may be connected with the mainlshaft, and-Fig. 3 is a view, showinq the fly-wheel and fiy-wheel actuating mechanism, partly in cross-section, and partly in elevation, the

taken on cross-sectional part thereof being the 1ine;;3--3 of Fig. 1. v The machine frame is indicatedby the reference numeral '1 and is provided with the usual drive whee s 2-2 and front wheels 53-3; The forward part of the frame is narrowed to provide room in which the forward wheel's may turn at an unusually great angleand a novel form of steering ear 4 is provided, which, however, 18 not 0 aimed herein, it'being made the subject of a separate application filed contemporaneously with this application.

In order to distrlbute'the vibration due to the motors to the greatest possible extent,

and therefore make'it asnearly impercepti ble as possible, I provide a motor 5 on eachside ofrthelongitudinal center of the vehicle frame, and these motors I place at substanQ. tially the middle of the machine from front to rear. The type of motor, which is prefer,

"struction I am enabled, upon ,rempvin ably used is a gasolene engine ofthe opposed cylinder type and of the well-known V form,

the cylinders, however, being placed nearly in a straight line so that the angle between them approximates very closely to 180 de grees. By this arrangement all the advan tages of the V type of gasolene motor may be r obtained, and atthe same time the motor takes upvvery little room vertically. Motors whose opposed cylinders are placed in the same straight line. could, of course, be used :within the scope of my invention. One of the cylinders of each engine is placed in front of the' transverse center line of the vehicle frame, and the other at the rear thereof, the rear cylinder beingat substantially'the same distance from the rear wheels as the forward cylindef is from the front wheels. If an automobile constructed in the manner I have described were to be cut longitudinally and tiansversely into quarters,

one of the cylinders of the engine would be situated in each of these quarters. apparent that the arrangementof the motors in. this fashion with respect to the machine frame will distribute and Reduce the vibration attenda nt'upon their operation. It is to be understood, of course, that" when I speak of one of the cylinders of a gasolene motor of the V typ.e, I mean one of the units on each leg of the Y, which-unit may ob- ,viou'slyb'e made up of any desired number removed without anyfurthertrouble- This arrangement obviates. the-common n'eQQS'sity of remoying several. bolts before {access can be had to the interiorofthe crankcase. The 'maihfishaftgof the automobile is shown at'10 a1iditis connected by any coim 'mon'form of't'ransmission' gearing contained in the box 11 to the driving shaft 12 whence power applied to the shaft 10 is transmitted a.

through sprockets to the rear wheels 2; About the cylinders 6 of the engines are placed jlfljckets which are' connected to a fan 13 byhpip es 14. This fan, which is driven from a pulley-15 on the fly wheeltshaft' by a pulley cord. 16, forces air through the pipes .14 and the cylinderjackets and out through perforations 17 at the ends of the cylinder I acketsmostremote from the fan 13.

In order to throw the engines into and out of gear with the driving shaft I/have provided the clutch mechanism which will nowbe described.

Upon the shafts 18 of the motors 5, are

provided loose'running bevel gears 19 which continuously mesh with a gear 20' upon the main shaft 10. The engines upon the two sides of the machine are run in opposite di- I rectionssothat each will actuate theshaft 10 to turn in the-.same'direction. The gears 19 are provided with inwardly extending hubs 21 in which are formed recesses'22 surrounding the shafts 18. S liding sleeves 23,

, provided at one end with grooves 24, for conrecesses 22 in the hubs 21 are grooves 27 in hub' of the which the friction members26 are received. hen .a sleeve 23 is forced within the corresponding recess 22 by the actuating device applied to the groove 21, the frictionmembers 26 coming into contact with the beveled mouth of the recess 22 will bepushed into their slots 25, and as the sleeve '23 moves- :farther along these frictionmembers will be" thrust outward by the springs 28, and will contactwith the bottom of the groove 27. ,The gear l9 will now be driven by ther0 tating shaft 18 It will be understood. that either or both or neither of the motors may thus be clutched in to actuate the, gear 20 on the main shaft as 'desired- Sweated upono'r otherwise secured-to the wheel -29.wh1ch-actuates a similar friction wheel 30 which is secured-to and forms a I part of the fly wheel 31. The said fly wheelis mounted upon [a shortvertioal shaft 32,

which is mounted in suitable ball bearings in crosspieces 33 and 34' which, form a part of the vehicle frame. This'fly wheel, which is situated betweenand below themotors and at substantially the center of the vehicle frame increases the stability of the vehicle both by loweringfthe center of gravity and by its resistance to any change in the plane fof fits rotation in-which respect it operates upon the well-known principle of the-gyroscope.

. I claim:

1. In. a motor vehic1e,.the combination gearing, substantially as set forth.

car 20,. is a beveled friction with a vehicle frame provided with driving wheels of two motors, one disposed at either side of the longitudinal central line of the said frame, and at substantially its middle,

each motor being made up of two units, one v disposed in front and the-other back of the middle transverse line of the vehicle frame, interconnecting, gearing between the motors and the driving wheels, a horizontal fly wheel beneath said motors, and connections between saidfly' wheel and said intermediate gearing, substantially as set forth. 2. In a motorveh1cle,'the combination of a vehicle frame, driving wheels on said frame, "of two motors, each comprising a shaft and each made up of two units, the said'motor shafts being in ali'nement and extending transversely of the frame ,-substan' tially midway between theends thereof, one of the units of each motor being placed forward ofthe motor shaft and the other beingf placed rearward thereof, the'interconnectin'g. gearing between the motor shafts and the drive wheels, a horizontal fly wheel beneath said motors, and connections between said flywheel and, said intermediate 3.In a motor vehicle, the combination with a vehicle frame and drive' Wheels, of 1 two gasolene motorsof the opposed cylinder type, the said opposed cylinders of each motor being provided with a" common crank shaft, the shafts being placed in line with one another, and transversely of'the' vehicle frame, substantially midway between its ends, interconnecting gearing between said motor shafts and the drive wh les horizontal fly wheel beneath said. motors, and connections between said fly wheel and said intermediate gearing, substantially as set forth.

4.1a a motor vehicle,. the combination with a vehicle frame and drive wheels, of.

two motors each of which is made up of twounits, on'eof the motors being placed on each side of "a central longitudinal line of the said frame, and one of the units of each motor being-Ion each side of the, central transverse line through the said frame," a main shaft connected to the drivewhe'els, connections between said shaft andmotors,'a hori- .-zonta l'fly wheel beneath said moto1's,' andc'onnectionsbetween said shaft and substantially as set forth.

' This specification signedthis 5th day of July, 1907;

- FRANK E. LAKE.

and witnessed Vvi't-nessesz "LUIS (ltrEsTA, L. ANGEL Mon ALES;

Gopieshf thin-patent may lieobtained for five cents each, by addressing theWCommiss ioner bf Patents;

' Washington, 'D. C. I 

